Mayor Bill de Blasio: Everybody, all along I've said this would be a tough fight against the coronavirus and it's important we understand more and more we are fighting this war on two fronts. First, in our hospitals to save lives, but the second front now is more and more an economic one as well, where folks are struggling to make ends meet, running out of money, New Yorkers who don't have enough money to pay the rent to get the medicines they need, to get the food they need. So, we're going to talk today about our efforts to get food to New Yorkers who need it because this is a growing problem. This is a problem that's going to more and more affect the people of our city as they run out of money. And even though there is some federal help coming, it's not that much and it's going to take too long for many people. So just as we deal with the most important moment in the fight against the illness in our hospitals to save lives, there's a new front opening up and we have to be there for people who need food, cannot have any New Yorker go hungry.
Since we're talking about two fronts, I want to open on the first one and I'm going to say to all of you, it is way too early to draw any definite conclusions. I want to really make sure none of us in public life tell you we have turned a corner until we are absolutely certain. We are not there yet and I want to make sure no one stops practicing social distancing and shelter in place. We must continue those strategies if we're going to protect lives, but I can say in the last couple of days something is starting to change. We don't know if it will be sustained, but it is meaningful now. We projected to you even on Sunday that we had seen a little bit progress in terms of when we were going to need ventilators. We've seen more progress now. That means the number of people showing up in our hospitals who need a ventilator, that situation has improved a bit in recent days. I'm hopeful, but I'm not drawing conclusions until I'm 100 percent sure and my health team is 100 percent sure, but the good news is it is giving us some more time. It is giving us the opportunity to get more ventilators in and know we get farther into the week, so that's very good news. Just the fact that we know we've bought a few more days and we can absolutely protect lives because ventilators will be there. That's crucial news.
We'll have to see in the days ahead if it's something sustained and something that deepens, we will give you daily updates to tell you what's going on, but I want to at least note a little improvement last few days and thank God for that. But as I said, when it comes to the economic battle, when it comes to battling to make sure that people have the food they need, that situation is not getting better, it's getting worse, and think about why, because all of those people lost jobs. All those people still work, but not as much. All those people not getting a paycheck or getting reduced paycheck. The number is staggering. The initial projection is at least half a million New Yorkers are either already out of work or soon will be. That is the kind of level of unemployment and economic distress, the only comparison you can make for that is the Great Depression, which scares me to death to even say that and, and it's right where we are here. Here in Manhattan I am reminded of what this city went through in the Great Depression. I'm reminded of it because of the stories I heard from my family, my older relatives who went through the depression right here in this part of New York City. And the stories they told about how difficult it was, how painful it was, how disorienting it was, we have to understand that what we're going through now and what we will go through, that's the only parallel we can look at and we cannot underestimate the problem for everyday New Yorkers, especially when it comes to food. We're having a lot of people literally having to ask that question, where is my next meal coming from? More and more people are in that situation, so we have to act very aggressively to address that.
Now I want to be clear, I've given you the extent of the problem, but I want to be clear what the mission statement is. I want to be clear what our resolve is. We will not let any New Yorker go hungry. Literally, we will not let any New Yorker go hungry. We have been planning from the beginning of this crisis to address the hunger problem and because we understood that this would be a profound part of what we faced, and this is something that we had seen in other crisis as well, but this is a whole different scale, but we knew this was something we had to prepare for. I named a few weeks ago, an extraordinary public servant, Commissioner Kathryn Garcia, as our Food Czar with the responsibility to come up with a system that we've never had to have in decades in this city, but a system to feed people on a mass scale if it came to that. She has been working closely with Department of Education, Department for the Aging, and Emergency Management to immediately put into action a food plan, but also build for anything bigger we may need to do.
The Chancellor and I had opportunity, a very special opportunity to spend some time with the food service workers here at P.S. 1. They've served 3,100 meals in the past week to people who need it. They’re good people. I said in there, there are another kind of first responder they've showed up to help people in need and they've been a lifeline for people in this community. So, 3,100 meals in the past week for children and families right here in the Lower East Side. This is a part of something much bigger and I want to thank of course everyone at P.S. 1, all the teachers and staff, everyone who's been part of this effort here, the food service workers, the principal, Amy Hom, everyone who has done this work and this whole team that has come together focused on food. Chancellor Carranza again, from Department for the Aging our Commissioner Lorraine Cortés-Vázquez, of course our Health Commissioner, Dr. Oxiris Barbot, all of them, our Emergency Management Commissioner, Deanne Criswell, working under the leadership of Kathryn Garcia who's been helping to coordinate all the agencies and common cause. And as always, our elected officials are helping us spread the word, helping us find people who need help, helping us to make sure we have the resources we need. Thank you to state Senator Brian Kavanagh, who's with us now for everything he's done.
So, I want to give you a sense of the scale of this effort and this is just the beginning. In the last three weeks, the efforts of Department of Education, Department for the Aging, Emergency Management, all coordinated by Commissioner Garcia, those efforts have provided 2.6 million meals to New Yorkers who needed food. 2.6 million meals in the last three weeks and that is just the beginning. Now everybody, the site you see here, there are 434 other sites around the city just like this where anyone can come get breakfast, lunch, dinner, all three if they need it for as members of our family as they need. So, we're asking for students or students with their parents to come earlier in the day, 7:30 to 11:30, we're asking adults who are alone to come later in the day, 11:30 to 1:30, but it's the same exact standard everywhere. No one is turned away. No one has to pay anything. You get as many meals as you need. This is about making sure people have food.
Now there's a different initiative for those, for the senior citizens who need help for folks who are homebound, for folks who are vulnerable and that the only solution for them is a delivery. There's also a growing delivery system. This is something Lorraine Cortés-Vázquez has been working on from the beginning and it's building all the time. So, anybody who truly needs a home delivery can call 3-1-1 and we'll get them that delivery. Or they can go to nyc.gov/getfood to sign up. There's a lot of different things that we can get for people. We've got these grab and go sites at the schools. There are a lot of food pantries. The home delivery, we can make sure people who do not get food stamps sign up if they're eligible. Lots of different things we can do to help people. So again, anyone who needs help can go 3-1-1, you can go to nyc.gov/getfood or text the word FOOD or in Spanish they can text the word COMIDA to 8-7-7-8-7-7 to find the site nearest to them. So, if anyone needs it, you can use that text. Again, the word FOOD or the word COMIDA to 8-7-7-8-7-7 and find out a site near you where you can get the food you need for yourself and your family.
Now that's about helping all New Yorkers, anyone in need, but I also want to mention something very particular about our heroes, our health care workers who are at the front lines dealing with this crisis. It's been a very, very difficult month for them. The month of March into April has been very, very tough. These folks are working so hard, under such adverse circumstances. They often don't even have time to go outside for even a few minutes. They don't have time to go to the deli like they used to in the hospital, or the cafeteria. They need help in every way they can get it and we want food to get to them. So many people are responding in communities all over New York City and getting food to hospitals, helping our health care workers directly. But I want to mention some very special efforts, really appreciate these efforts. For example, Lavazza Coffee, that company is helping hospital staff. They're donating 60,000 bags of coffee for doctors, nurses, and hospital workers. And we all know how important it is to have coffee in the middle of this fight. So, I thank them deeply for that.
On a very big level, amazing announcement today. This is something I'm announcing as brand new: I want to thank Deborah and Leon Black, two New Yorkers who are showing extraordinary generosity. They have teamed up with the Mayor’s Fund. They have donated $10 million to help get food and crucial household supplies for the families of the health care workers. So this initiative is called Health Care Heroes and Deborah and Leon Black had put their $10 million forward. They are looking for matching donations from others who can help. If more comes in, they're ready to provide another $10 million to match up to $10 million in donations from other donors. So an incredible, incredible effort. I want to thank both of them on behalf of all 8.6 million New Yorkers. They teamed up with the Mayor’s Fund and in turn they have partnered. Everyone's partnered with the company, Aramark that does food services. They will be putting together at least 300,000 packages of food and household supplies for doctors, nurses, hospital workers of all kind to ease their burden and to help their families. The Red Cross will be doing a lot of the deliveries for the Health Care Heroes. The Robin Hood Foundation will be managing the matching funds to make sure that as other donations come in, we activate that match. This entire initiative will be beginning to deliver these crucial supplies and the food to the families of the health care workers hopefully no later than Monday, maybe even sooner.
So that's an amazing effort. We also have an effort by New York Road Runners. They're a wonderful New York organization. Last week they have 20,000 pairs of gloves to help our health care workers. Now they're donating 10,000 meals for doctors and nurses and frontline staff. So, we see so many different efforts coming together. Every day New Yorkers standing up, people doing everything they can to help our heroes.
Now, one more point I want to make before some quick summary in Spanish. I talked to you over the weekend. It was very moving to me that the Governor of Oregon, Kate Brown, volunteered ventilators from Oregon to help New York. See another great act by a governor, Governor Newsom of California who has taken 500 ventilators that they were using in California, had a very tough time, we know it in many parts of that state. They're taking 500 ventilators returning them to the national stockpile so they can go to places like New York and the other places that are hard hit. So, I want to thank Governor Newsom. There is something happening all over this country where people are pouring out their hearts to New York. They're standing with us. People all over the world are standing with us and I think New Yorkers are feeling it more and more. We're in a deep, deep fight, but New Yorkers know we can win this fight. We see more and more people helping us and our own toughness as New Yorkers. Our own resiliency is coming through more and more, but look at all the ways that people are lifting each other up. It's absolutely amazing. So, we're in a fight, but we will not lose this fight. We will prevail and I have great faith that with all the help we're getting, we're going to see this through together.
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